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Ontario’s justice system in a ‘crisis’ for aboriginals: Frank Iacobucci report

Ontario’s justice system is in a “crisis” regarding First Nations people who are overrepresented in prisons but left out of juries.

Former Supreme Court justice Frank Iacobucci revealed 17 recommendations Tuesday he said must be urgently implemented in order to get First Nations involved in the court process and sitting on juries.
(Vince Talotta / TORONTO STAR file photo)

Ontario’s justice system is in a “crisis” concerning First Nations people who are overrepresented in prisons yet cut out of participating in juries, says a hard-hitting independent review released Tuesday.

Former Supreme Court justice Frank Iacobucci spent more than a year leading an investigation into the lack of native people participating on jury trials and inquests.

In the course of his probe, he found he could not ignore “systemic racism” in the courts, prison and jury process including mistreatment of First Nations inmates in penitentiaries, general disrespect by police and “discriminatory public reaction to First Nations complaints.”

Iacobucci urged the Ontario government to implement 17 recommendations to fix the courts, prison and jury process, saying the problem “warrants urgent response.”

“The time for lofty speeches and words is over,” Iacobucci told a news conference in Thunder Bay, Ont., that was also broadcast live in Toronto.

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Already, Attorney General John Gerretsen has promised to get working on the first two recommendations: setting up an advisory committee to deal with the probe’s findings and establishing a body concerning aboriginal justice issues that will report directly to him.

As for the other 15, Gerretsen said he wants to study the report. Speaking to reporters at Queen’s Park, Gerretsen seemed to question Iacobucci’s use of the word “crisis.”

“That’s his terminology,” he said Tuesday. “Obviously, that’s the way he feels about it. I’m not sure whether it’s a crisis or not. I’m not going to disagree with him. I’m going to study the report.”

The changes include using OHIP and driver’s licence information to help recruit native people for juries, bolstering First Nations policing by establishing a regulatory body to oversee aboriginal law enforcement, reviewing legal aid representation and creating an assistant deputy attorney general responsible for aboriginal issues.

Iacobucci also wants training for all employees in Ontario’s justice system on how to deal with aboriginal people.

“If we continue the status quo, we will aggravate what is already a serious situation and any hope of true reconciliation between First Nations and Ontarians generally will vanish,” stated Iacobucci in his report on First Nations Representation on Ontario Juries.

Iacobucci has not “pulled any punches” when dealing with hard realities concerning natives in the justice system who face racism, poor quality legal representation, an overrepresentation in prisons and a lack of police services, Fiddler added.

Chronic underfunding of First Nations policing was brought into focus earlier this month after the death of Lena Anderson, a 23-year-old woman who died of a suspected suicide in the back of a police cruiser. She was in the cruiser because the police detachment where she was being held at the Kasabonika Lake First Nation had no heat.

The review was first ordered in 2011 by former attorney general Chris Bentley.

Nishnawbe Aski Nation, a political organization representing 49 northern First Nations, argued it was unfair to proceed in an inquest into the high school student’s death without proper aboriginal participation.

Bushie, 15, was among seven high school students, some as young as 14, who were sent away on their own from their remote northern reserves to go to high school in Thunder Bay because there was no suitable school for them to attend at home. .

The seven students’ deaths are now the subject of a broader inquest led by the Ontario Coroner’s Office. Falconer hopes First Nations people will volunteer to be on the inquest jury — volunteering is one of the 17 recommendations.

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